Isaac Mizrahi Launches New Fragrance – with a Poodle's Help

"Certain things just make me smile," Isaac Mizrahi told PEOPLE at the launch of Fabulous, his first fragrance for women. The designer brought that sense of joy to the perfume's ad campaign. "I see a poodle, it just makes me smile."

For the campaign, two black standard poodles joined a model (in pink!) outside New York City's Guggenheim Museum. In one scene, a show-trimmed pooch appears to be asking for a spritz of the scent, which features mandarin, nectarine, jasmine and cedar.

"I just thought there was a kind of madness to it," Mizrahi said of incorporating the dogs into the campaign. "This really dressy, mysterious, discreet woman who is totally revealed by her love of poodles. It says she has a sense of humor, a sense of fun, a sense of the outrageous and over-the-top."

One of the dog models, a former show dog named Star, graced the launch event for Fabulous at Bloomingdale's in New York. Mizrahi has two dogs of his own and engaged naturally and affectionately with his muse.

"I've always had a poodle moment," said Mizrahi, who featured standard poodles in a recent runway show. "I grew up with a poodle named Pom Pom. A big apricot-colored giant. He was very neurotic."

Star, for her part, was the picture of composure in the midst of a frenzied fragrance department (Mizrahi quipped, "She has an Aries spirit about her!"), and patiently waited in line so her handler could get an autograph.

Mizrahi thought about Pom Pom, Star, and his two pooches at home: 12-year-old Harry and 7-year-old Dean.

"I would love another poodle. Right now I have two, and I think if I got a third dog, I would be thrown out of my co-op," he said. "But my babies are doing great. They own my soul. Harry really still has it, you'd be so surprised. I'm serious. Twelve is the new seven."